Mobile communication devices, such as handheld telephones, PDAs, vehicle-mounted communication devices, etc., are unique as compared to many other types of consumer electronics in that their usage almost always depends on their end users entering into usage subscription agreements. Such agreements may be straightforward default cost/term agreements, such as prepaid and pay-as-you go agreements, while other agreements establish minimum service agreement time periods and may involve a complex package of services and features.
According to the subscription model, a given mobile communication device must be authorized before it can be used (at least for non-emergency services), and, in almost all cases, the credentials for providing and maintaining that authorization must be secure to prevent misuse or outright fraud. The Global Services for Mobile communications (GSM) standards have long addressed these concerns through the use of a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM). A SIM is implemented on a tamper-resistant Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) that is inserted into a particular mobile communication device. With the UICC inserted into the device, the associated SIM provides the device with credentials that give the device access to one or more secured wireless communication networks.
That said, various technologies (e.g., the Bluetooth SIM Access Profile technology) have been developed that permit a device to remotely use the SIM (i.e., credentials) of another device via a local communication link. For example, a vehicle today may be equipped with a vehicle-mounted communication device (e.g., a car phone) that, as compared to a driver's handheld device, offers greater convenience, quality of service, and/or safety. To realize these advantages while at the same time avoiding having to enter into a separate subscription agreement for the vehicle-mounted device, a driver may actually access a secured wireless network using the vehicle-mounted device's user interface, wireless transceiver, etc., but acquire authorization for that access by remotely using the SIM of the driver's handheld device.
Despite these developments, devices still must be statically configured to remotely use the credentials of another device, often with complicated and cumbersome manual processes. Configuring a device to remotely use the credentials of another device may entail, for example, performing various security-related steps on one or both of the devices by physically inputting special commands into the device(s).
Accordingly, statically configuring a device (e.g., a vehicle-mounted device) to remotely use the credentials of a certain credentialed device (e.g., a handheld device) leads to a user solely relying on that credentialed device for access to a secured network. Indeed, even if the user has in his or her possession another credentialed device (e.g., a laptop) via which to access the secured network, the user may not know the commands to enter into the device(s) in order to switch from remotely using the credentials of one device to remotely using the credentials of the other device. Thus, if the former credentialed device fails, or credentialed access is otherwise lost, the user will be left without credentialed access.
Leaving a user without credentialed access is unacceptable in many situations, such as an emergency situation (e.g., a vehicle accident), Yet, in an emergency situation, even if the user knows the requisite commands, the user may then be physically unable to enter those commands, or the user interface(s) via which the user would enter those commands into the device(s) may no longer function.